Hi, i got a dvdrw drive and would like to create dvds from video file's such as avi etc and back up other dvd's also. So i'm trying to find the best software to use. Something with a gui interface. I put dvd in a search on the sourceforge website but get loadz of results!

I have k3b and it says it needs the dvd structure all set out for it to write a dvd. So if i was to use that to write dvd's i would need a prog to make .vob files etc and to encode dvd's?

Any suggestions?

Never done this myself but I think you do need a seperate app. Have you taken a look at transcode and gmencoder (part of the MPlayer package)?

http://varsha.sourceforge.net/

Never used it tho, might want to look up dvdauthor aswell.

You may want to check out this guide: "DVD Ripping and Transcoding with Linux" . It's a bit dated, but may be of some use.

Also, the program dvd::rip may be helpful. Check it out here.

Joe

Some links are at

http://www.websamba.com/Linux_Docs_Links
-> Hardwares
-> CD/DVD Burning - HowTo

http://www.websamba.com/Linux_Docs_Links
-> Softwares
-> CD/DVD Burning

Sheng-Chieh

Thanks for everyones reply. I have downloaded and installed dvd::rip which uses transcode. It works very well and the gui is good, i think this is all i will need but i need time to try it all out.

Ok well i found the time today to try copyin a dvd.

I ripped it using dvd::rip which created 4 .vob files nicely.

Then firstly i thought i'd try burning it using k3b but it doesn't detect my dvdrw drive for some reason.

Then i tried varsha but this just crashes out!

So then i read through the links from shengchieh and found how to burn using mkisofs & growisofs. So with my .vobs i did this,

mkisofs -J -R -pad -o MyDVD.iso file1.vob file2.vob file3.vob file4.vob
growisofs -Z /dev/dvdrecorder=MyDVD.iso -speed=4

The first command created the iso but there was no file structure just the 4 files at the root! The second command burned the iso to my blank dvd.

The dvd didn't work tho coz when i put it in my player it said invalid title. After using varsha i noticed it sets the file structure up as follows,

Disc
---TitleSet1
--------Title1
--------Title2
--------Title3
--------Title4

and each the .vobs are in the Title1 etc folders.

How do i use mkisofs to make the proper file structure?

Hello

I'm not sure about but :
mkisofs -o /path/to/put/the_iso/MyDvdIso.iso -dvd-video /path/to/project/

Mkisofs expect the file (ifo etc...) and the -dvd-video option is for :
Generate DVD-Video compliant UDF file system. This is done by sorting the order of the content of the appropriate files and by adding padding between the files if needed. Note that the sorting only works if the DVD-Video filenames include upper case characters only.

Then i would burn it with :
growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=/path/to/put/the_iso/MyDvdIso.iso

Hope that's help
Let us know if you success.

Best.

All i have is 4 .vob files in a directory, so this is what i typed and the output,

cootetom@linux:~> mkisofs -o DVD/MyDVD.iso -dvd-video DVD/TeamAmerica/vob/001/
INFO: UTF-8 character encoding detected by locale settings.
Assuming UTF-8 encoded filenames on source filesystem,
use -input-charset to override.
Using TEAMA000.VOB;1 for /TeamAmerica-004.vob (TeamAmerica-003.vob)
Using TEAMA001.VOB;1 for /TeamAmerica-003.vob (TeamAmerica-002.vob)
Using TEAMA002.VOB;1 for /TeamAmerica-002.vob (TeamAmerica-001.vob)
mkisofs: Unable to make a DVD-Video image.

U mentioned needing ifo file etc. I have these files in the directory DVD/TeamAmerica/tmp/ifo so i typed this with the following output,

cootetom@linux:~> mkisofs -o DVD/MyDVD.iso -dvd-video DVD/TeamAmerica/tmp/ifo/
INFO: UTF-8 character encoding detected by locale settings.
Assuming UTF-8 encoded filenames on source filesystem,
use -input-charset to override.
mkisofs: Unable to make a DVD-Video image.

Finally i tried this,

cootetom@linux:~> mkisofs -o DVD/MyDVD.iso -dvd-video DVD/TeamAmerica/
INFO: UTF-8 character encoding detected by locale settings.
Assuming UTF-8 encoded filenames on source filesystem,
use -input-charset to override.
Using TEAMA000.JPG;1 for DVD/TeamAmerica/tmp/TeamAmerica-001-preview-clip2.jpg(TeamAmerica-001-preview-clip1.jpg)
Using TEAMA001.JPG;1 for DVD/TeamAmerica/tmp/TeamAmerica-001-preview-clip1.jpg(TeamAmerica-001-preview-orig.jpg)
Using TEAMA002.JPG;1 for DVD/TeamAmerica/tmp/TeamAmerica-001-preview-orig.jpg (TeamAmerica-001-preview-zoom.jpg)
Using TEAMA000.VOB;1 for DVD/TeamAmerica/vob/001/TeamAmerica-004.vob (TeamAmerica-003.vob)
Using TEAMA001.VOB;1 for DVD/TeamAmerica/vob/001/TeamAmerica-003.vob (TeamAmerica-002.vob)
Using TEAMA002.VOB;1 for DVD/TeamAmerica/vob/001/TeamAmerica-002.vob (TeamAmerica-001.vob)
mkisofs: Unable to make a DVD-Video image.

What you think? Doesn't appear to be using my 1st vob file ever?

Hello

mkisofs need the dvd«rules» :
Prerequisite is that you have a valid VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS structure with
valid VOB,BUP and IFO files.

dont have to point to the IFO files, just the directory project where all files are (as a dvdbackup -M -i/dev/dvd -o/my/dvd/backup/dir/ would do with any commercial dvd )
so you have to create this valid structure.....
How.....(maybe : apt-cache show dvdauthor create DVD-Video file system) never used it (just bough my burner)
Guess this topic will be very interressing, dont forget to tell if you sucess.

Best.


ps: i've just copy a dvd (single layer) with dvdbackup, mkisofs and growisofs, but it's just a «perfect» copy, i've not just some .vob to set up.
Also put some «data» backup with growisofs, no troubles.

hello

By the way, check that for the «idea» of the structure:


http://dvd.chevelless230.com/index.html

Best


Apologies for my poor english...

Thanks pingouinux some good information there.

It appears using dvd::rip did not get all the files i needed from the dvd. I had a look at the dvd files and decided to simply copy the whole dvd file structure from the dvd to a folder on my hard drive. It copied them over all in lower case so i then renamed everything to uppercase, so now the file structure is exactly how it says in the document. I then ran the following command,

mkisofs -dvd-video -o DVD/MyDVD.iso DVD/HomeDVD

Thought i'd test out the iso file this time before buring so i did this,

# mount -o loop MyDVD.iso /test
# xine dvd://test/

This played my mounted iso file as a dvd and it worked perfectly. So i just gotta burn it to cd now and i'll say if it worked ok.

The dvd i'm copying is already a back up so maybe thats why i was able to simply copy the files to my hard drive. Will i be able to just copy the files with commercial dvd's do you think? Maybe i'll have to use dvdbackup to do that job in the future!

Night.

So, good.
dvdbackup will do the job (all the necessary file are grab on the hd)

http://dvd-create.sourceforge.net/dvdbackup-readme.html

Best.

I tried burning to cd this morning using,

# growisofs -Z /dev/dvdrecorder=DVD/MyDVD.iso -speed=4

It got to 73% and did this,

2778660864/3771424768 (73.7%) @0.4x, remaining 34:31
:-[ WRITE@LBA=14b470h failed with SK=2h/ASC=3Ah/ACQ=00h]: No medium found
builtin_dd: 1356912*2KB out @ average 0.3x1385KBps
:-( write failed: No medium found
/dev/dvdrecorder: flushing cache
:-[ FLUSH CACHE failed with SK=2h/ASC=3Ah/ACQ=00h]: No medium found
:-[ SYNCHRONOUS FLUSH CACHE failed with SK=2h/ASC=3Ah/ACQ=00h]: No medium found

?

Hi

Ohh ?! Bad news....
I dont know why that's happend.... the «command is good» growisofs -Z /dev/dvdrecorder=DVD/MyDVD.iso -speed=4 (but i never succed in setting the speed, the option is never read, allway start with the Max speed, i dont know why), maybe tried with a lower speed ?

you created the iso with mkisofs and DO not forget -dvd-video ? yes i guess.

Sorry, have no idea.

Best.

I had better luck, i burn another dvd commercial on an DVD+RW, all my dvd player (computer or for tv) read it !